I enjoyed this route, did it once by myself and then the following day with some other people. To gain the ridge from lake 3470, the obvious thing to try was to start at the center of the lake's shore and march straight up the talus pile that lies between the two forks of the ridge. The other start we tried, which was somewhat nicer, was to go way around on the right, start up the long gully, and then scramble up to the left. On the way down, we descended the ridge until we saw an easy way to insert into the gully on the left, which was a fast and enjoyable scree glissade.

Definitely not too bad going up the North Face. Some sketchy parts - no doubt. Hard class 3 at parts. Lower on the slope it is mostly Class 2 without much trouble. The summit is a beast. Getting down from the summit was very tricky. We headed down the back side to the southeast slope via the Shortcut variation. But it was getting down from the summit to the east side that was quite scary.

Tried this route winter style with a couple friends :) We didn't make it to the top but made a good attempt. Deep sugar snow made really physical. Captured the GPS so here it is: http://connect.garmin.com/player/278965214

The approach went surprisingly quick and I had no issue marching right up to the "rib." Great time scrambling up while avoiding as much of the trail as possible to keep it interesting; found myself in some Class 4 terrain but it worked out in the end with a summit. Snow flurry began just before summit; clouds were beautiful but ruined the light for pictures. :P Descended via shortcut variation even though I thought it was U. Pass....oh well, I enjoyed the scree skiing and the marathon moraine while drizzle kept me company. THEN the sun came out as I returned to the TH for a wine cooler reward. Fun peak!